The announcement has left the arts community divided. According to local artist and playwright Terre Chartrand, about half of the artists she heard from on Tuesday were calling for the dismantling of the organization, while others were supportive of moving CEI forward, but in a new direction.

“Certainly a lot of people are clamouring for it to just be dismantled. I don’t know if that is the best solution, because certainly a lot has been accomplished under Heather [Sinclair],” Chartrand said of the organization’s former CEO.

“I would like to see it repurposed because it is there and it’s well funded. Ideally, I would like to see it out of the hands entirely of business, engineering and tech folk and have a better blended board that works toward the aims of not talent retention for other industries, but to create a proper creative sector here in Waterloo Region,” Chartrand said.

According to its website, CEI arose out of a study by the Prosperity Council of Waterloo Region in 2010 to create long-term sustainability and economic viability in the creative sector.

CEI offers various programs, including 7,000 square feet of studio space for artists in Waterloo. But the workshops primarily target for-profit organizations, which Chartrand said is misguided.

“Certainly the region is in need of far greater help than pithy measures like bookkeeping courses,” she said, adding that the region lacks spaces for artists.

During the local theatre festival Impact, Chartrand said it would have been less expensive to take all of the patrons on a bus to Toronto, take them out for dinner and rent theatre space there than to rent space at some theatres in Waterloo Region. “I don’t see bookkeeping as something that is a useful thing when we don’t even have space to make art, or produce art or display it,” she said.

In 2013, the budget for CEI was $790,000, with 33 per cent of it coming from the Region of Waterloo, City of Waterloo and City of Kitchener. Private donations made up 45 per cent of the budget, while provincial funding made up 21 per.

In an interview last week, Farwell said CEI’s mandate is broad and expands across all creative sectors, not just the arts. “CEI spans the entire creative cluster, not simply just the fine arts and culture, and the board wants to take pause and review the experience it has had over the three years,” he said. “[CEI’s] not going anywhere. It is very much going forward.”

Part of CEI’s struggle, according to Farwell, has been bringing in private funds, although he said because of the economic climate, it’s no surprise.